God with Mary, the Faithful

Focus Statement

God calls us into unknown places that we could never foresee for ourselves.

And even in the midst of uncertainty, God is with us.

Point of Relation

In another lifetime, I worked for a local web development company...

called Flying Pig Virtual Construction

located in the back of what was a the time the Flying Pig Art Gallery on Main St. in Sussex.

The name may sound funny, but we had major clients such as Caldwell Banker at the time.

I LOVED THAT JOB...

Loved the people I work with and have fond memories from working there.

STILL, I was 21 or so years old when I started there....

and so I was YOUNG and insecure...

with a total lack of confidence in myself.

One evening, as I was working on a client’s web site,

My boss, John, came up to me and said,

“You’re going to be teaching a group of teachers how to use Excel on Thursday.”

Granted…he’s telling me this on a Tuesday evening at the end of the work day.

I responded,

“I can’t do that…I barely use EXCEL! How could I teach them anything but what they probably already know?”

My boss walked away for a moment, came back,

and plopped a Microsoft Office Excel manual right in front of me.

It quickly became clear that i was going to have to teach this class…

No matter what I did to try and get out of it!

I went home that night and began reading up on Excel…pulling the program up and playing with it...

learning formulas and whatnot so that I could teach as best as I could

Sure enough, I showed up that Thursday morning and I taught that class...

That was my first time TEACHING anything

and I though I did an awful job!

When I got back to the office the next day,

My boss came right up to me…and told me that the people who organized the training class were super impressed with my “knowledge” and with how I ran the class.

Little did I know this at the time, but that was the first time I began to realize I had a gift for teaching...

An affirmation that would come more and more over the years as I began to answer my call to serve Jesus Christ.

Things to Consider

We all experience shifts or transitions in our lives

when we have to say yes and start something new without knowing what the future holds.

We all need faith in something or someone,

or we would never be able to take the first step.

Mary’s faithful “yes” changed the world for all of us

and offers a bold example for us to follow.

What Scripture Says

Can you imagine the shock Mary must have experienced

when the angel, Gabriel showed up out of nowhere and called Mary “favored one.”

Like, she’s just a teenage girl...

living an impoverished life in Nazareth…backwoods Galilee.

How could she possibly be favored...

What would Gabriel address her, a nobody who has nothing more than a domestic life in her future...

What would Gabriel, an angel of the Lord, address her as blessed and favored by God?

The passage says Mary is perplexed and pondered what the angel meant by this greeting.

Often, when God is calling us into something new,

it can be confusing and surprising, just as it was for Mary – something we never expected.

Mary must have become even more surprised and confused

when Gabriel delivered his message that she would have a baby,

to be named Jesus, who would be God’s son and heir to the kingdom of David.

Logically, the message didn’t make sense because Mary was a virgin,

a question she asks to the angel.

We often focus on what an honor it must have been for Mary to bring Jesus into the world,

but at this early stage, it must have also been extremely scary.

Being pregnant and unwed in Mary’s time was unacceptable.

What would Joseph say?

He legally could have her stoned for adultery.

God was asking Mary to do something terrifying here.

Mary grapples with what she is being told in her back-and-forth conversation with Gabriel.

Gabriel shares that God is also working in unexpected ways in the life of Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth, too, who is beyond the age of childbearing, is pregnant.

Gabriel provides this as an example that, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

When God calls us to do something new and potentially scary,

we too can talk to God through prayer.

We can also find support from other followers of Jesus

who have faced the unknown with faith.

And we can be examples to those who are facing scary situations.

In the end, Mary says,

“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word,” (verse 37a).

There comes a time when we must choose between fear and faith.

Will we allow our fear to prevent us from moving forward

into the new thing God is calling us to or will we,

like Mary, take the next step in faith knowing that

God is with us and that with God, nothing is impossible?

What This Means for You

How is God calling you into faithfulness, into taking a leap of faith?

Perhaps you serve on a ministry team or committee that is in need of leadership,

and you are being called to step up as its leader.

Perhaps you are being called to speak about your faith to your family and friends and even strangers.

Perhaps you are being called to invite someone to church.

Perhaps you are being called to take the next faith step by joining a church.

We will be holding a membership class early on in 2022.

If you are called toward that, consider reaching out and letting me know.

What questions do you for God?

Have you brought those questions to God in prayer,

and how can the we as a chuch be praying for you as you think about next steps? [Pause]

I want to encourage you to talk to others who have been through something similar

or to seek support from fellow Christians here in our community.

What does faith look like for each of you right now?

What This Means For Us

So often, congregations and the church more broadly allow fear of the unknown

to prevent us from taking bold steps forward in faith that “nothing will be impossible with God.”

What is God calling us to do in faith in this time?

What hard questions do we need to bring to God in prayer

and when is it time to put the fear aside and say, “Here are we, the servants of the Lord.”

Are we going to fear the decline we’ve experienced due to death, COVID, and societal trends...

Or are we going to step out in faith together, and do something about it?

Are we going to invite people to worship, are we going to care for the least of these in our community, are we going to be more visible in Newton...

or will we sit by and allow our fears, are energy, and our age to dissuade us.

Let us come together and continue to BE THE CHURCH…for the glory of God!